Fredericton electronica guru DenMother (aka Sabarah Pilon) has returned with a brand new mystical adventure in the form of Past Life, an 8-track album that blurs the lines between nature, machines, and mankind itself. Pilon pulls all the stops as she experiments with bells, whistles, and computers to evolve her sound into what can only be our best hope of communicating with the Martians.
“Something Like Spit” radiates with resonating synths as Pilon whispers her lyrics through a walkie-talkie with very little battery power. Without a doubt, we are in DenMother territory. “The Desert,” meanwhile, greets us with church bells that dip in and out of existence before we are shown the exit by tiny lasers. Pilon breathes ominous hymns into our ears the whole way through.
“Loner” is an especially interesting piece as an industrial mist falls onto our ears at the press of the play button. Pilon’s voice echoes around our eardrums as our skeletons flood with serenity.
“Not A Likely Story” falls in the same boat. Pilon’s voice drifts peacefully around your headphones as barely audible percussion gingerly leads you through a foggy forest decorated with blips of bell synths.
One of the standout tracks is the aptly named “Fish Cars,” with Pilon’s echoey lyrics joining us once again as melodic synths team up with funky percussion to emulate the auditory equivalent of marching on the moon.
“Face” would have to be the other standout track, and in our opinion the most complete of the album. With the vocoder-esque synths, static bass, perfectly paced percussion, and poetic lyrics, it sounds like a startup tune to the most epic Super Nintendo game ever. Elsewhere, “All Black” consists of a whispery, ambient beginning with a halfway mark that introduces a raspy synth that adds a feeling of slight urgency to the otherwise tranquil vibe.
Having moved to Fredericton to quickly establish herself as a force to be reckoned with in the East Coast electronic music scene, Pilon continues to build DenMother beyond her 10-years worth of experimental sounds, and Past Life is certainly a landmark in such a project.